When several pieces of equipment are colocated and, in particular, cooperatively colocated such as telephone subscriber equipment (which includes telephones, terminals, modems, and other special feature attachments), numerous wires and cables of some length extend from the equipment to an outlet. The number of wires and cables needed vary with the amount and type of equipment present. However, where several pieces of equipment are colocated, there is a tendency for these wires and cables extending from this equipment to become intertwined, entangled and unorganized. This occurs as a result of the shifting and moving about of the pieces of equipment.
Several problems are associated with a plurality of wires and cables extending from colocated electrical equipment. One such problem results in the execution of maintenance procedures. The entanglement of wires and cables makes maintenance a time-consuming and frustrating procedure. For example, several maintenance procedures require that the wire or cable extending from a piece of electrical equipment be disconnected from the outlet. Tracing the specific wire or cable from the associated piece of equipment requiring maintenance is virtually impossible when that particular wire or cable is intertwined with many others. Therefore, the possibility exists that the wrong piece of equipment is disconnected which then effectively prevents efficient and safe maintenance.
A second problem associated with entangled wires or cables is the risk of harm to a person or damage to a piece of equipment. For example, if the wires or cables extending from the equipment are lying on the floor, a person's foot may become entangled in the mass of wires or cables. Additionally, the yanking of the wires and cables by the person's foot could cause the equipment to become dislodged and fall on the floor causing equipment damage. An entangled mass of wires or cables on the floor may be hazardous both to the equipment and to the person.
Additionally, the appearance of a bulky mass of wires and cables is not necessarily aesthetically pleasing. Therefore in an environment where appearance is important, such as a reception area in a business office, a bulky mass of wires and cables presents an unattractive picture to a potential business customer.
Several conventional wire and/or cable harnesses are available. One type of harness affixes to a permanent, immovable surface. The wires or cables are restrained via the permanently secured harness. The disadvantage associated with this design is that a user is prevented from moving the equipment easily and is required to locate the equipment semi-permanently. Other conventional wire and/or cable harnesses are inflexible clamp-like structures having consecutively ordered containment portions. Although these harnesses are not affixed, these devices can not accommodate every environment since these harnesses can not conform to angles and bends. Again, the user is limited as to equipment location. Additionally, each containment portion only secures a small portion of wire and/or cable along the length of the wires and/or cables extending from colocated equipment and, therefore the wires and/or cables above or below the device may still become entangled. Applying several discrete harnesses of this type may alleviate the entanglement problem, but the expense and the unattractive appearance of such an arrangement are prohibitive factors. Further, the wires and/or cables may be collectively secured by a single device such as a circular clamp, but then the wires and/or cables are merely bundled rather than organized and ordered.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a flexible and easily installable device that aesthetically and safely orders and organizes the variety of wires and cables extending from a plurality of colocated electrical equipment.